I´m writting from Río de Janeiro, probably the most amazing city I´ve ever been to. Since the 21st of September I´ve only travelled between Sao Paulo and Río. I had planed about a month for Brasil...and have already used nearly the whole month for Sao Paulo, Maresías, Ubatuba, Paraty, Ilha Grande and Río de Janeiro...But has been worth it so far!!!

Maresías was suposed to be a great village for surfers and young people, an amazing beach, an avenue with plenty of bars and good ambience...well, the beach is amazing, the rest wasn´t!! At least not that day! I arrived there on a Wednesday afternoon, cold weather, nobody on the street, had to jump a puddle to cross the "avenue", and when I arrived to the hostel, there was also nobody there, just the staff, and an old couple that didn't even talk to each other. I had booked a bed on a shared room for 5, and was actually on my own on the room both nights. I tried to go for a walk, but the storm wouldn´t allow me, it was too rainy and windy to go anywhere! We are definetly in low season! For a few days I wondered if it was worth it to do this solo travelling... But I knew there will be good and bad moments, I was just unlucky and had a bad one just beginning my travels.

I stayed in that "ghost town" two days, and got a bus to Ubatuba, a town known by the brazilians as "Uba Chuva", Chuva being rain...But I had been told about the marine park created by Proyecto TAMAR to protect sea turtels (http://www.tamar.org.br/). I had the chance to visit it on my first day and loved the idea of involving the inhabitants of the coast of Brazil on protecting this beatufill animal. They select one person for each beach to control and inform if there are any turtles arround.

30 mins away from town by bus is Praia de Itamambuca and Praia do Felix, both huge paradise beaches. It takes about 1 hour to go from one side to the other of the beach! I got bus from the town to get to the first beach, and had to ask someone to tell me where to stop, because you don´t have a way to know when you have arrived!! No signs, no bus stops, nothing! From the road to the beach, it´s a 15 minutes walk through the jungle. From the first one to the second I walked for an hour on the road, as there were no busses at that time. Later, I realized that this wasn´t an option for the locals...so I was the only crazy one walking on the road!In these days I realized why people recomends to take moskito spray and a moskito net in Brazil. You don´t see them, but I swear they are there!The bite even on feet, toes, fingers, eyes...

! I had about 3 euro left and was starting to get worried as none of the cash points I had tried worked.

Next stop was Paraty. I´m going to stay on that village forever. Here the time stops.You arrive and can instantly feel the good energy, it´s got a magnet! There is people living here that just came on holidays and stayed...I met a lot of nice people, specially Pablo and Nicolet, but in general everyone is on a good mood and relaxed. Most people on the village has rhythm, they can play some instrument...and is typical to meet on a pub or on the beach and play, sing and dance samba for hours. I found this the first night when I was walking arround the historic center. It was great!

The town is located on the Bay of Ilha Grande, south of Rio de Janeiro,and is dotted with many tropical islands, waterfalls, beaches...After the discovery of the world's richest gold mines in 1696 in the mountains of Minas Gerais, Paraty became an export port for gold to Rio de Janeiro and from there on to Portugal. The ensuing gold rush led to the construction of the "Caminho do Ouro" or "Gold Trail", a 1200 kilometer road, paved in steep areas with large stones, which connected Paraty to Diamantina via Ouro Preto and Tiradentes. Not only was it used to transport gold to Paraty, but it was also used to convey supplies, miners and African slaves by mule train over the mountains to and from the gold mining areas

The Gold Trail fell into disuse because of attacks on the gold laden ships bound for Rio de Janeiro by pirates who frequented the islands and coves of the Bay of Angra dos Reis.

Eventually a safer overland route from Minas Gerais to Rio de Janeiro was created because of these pirate raids

. Finally, the gold itself began to run out in the late 18th century, and Paraty declined.

I eat my first proper meal since Sao Paulo here. Rice with meat, chicken, sausages and beans, a tipical dish from Brazil. Food in the street is not very healthy, they all sell "salgado", which is a mass in diferent shapes filled with something like meat, rice, cheese, ham...and usually fried in oil, but fruit is sold everywhere too, I´ve been drinking more mango juice here than in my whole life!

What is so charming from the litoral of Brazil, is that the vegetation grows very close to the beach, even in rocks on the sea. Its called Mata Atlántica, and is characterized by a high species diversity and endemism. Also, beaches are crowded of white crabs. They make holes on the sand, and hide when you get close to them.

After Paraty, I went to Ilha Grande. Despite the name I imagined it as a little Island, but it´s actualy 193 km². I had to take a 50 minutes rustic boat from the coast to the Island. I mean rustic, because it´s made of wood, open, and a wave might pass over you. The sunset from there was incredible. Most of the island is just vegetation and beach, and it is all based on the tourism: Restaurants, boat trips, excursions, and hostels

. I spend two days there with Nicolet, a chilian girl I met in Paraty. We walked 2.5 h trough the Mata Atlántica to get to López Méndez beach, which is said one of the nicest beaches in Brazil, as it is 2,8 km long, but I prefer the smaller ones near the town, with very clear water, big rocks in and outside the sea, and perfect to scuba dive, which was our plan on the second day.

From Ilha Grande, I came to Río de Janeiro with Oscar, an argentinian guy I met there, and that offered to drive me to Río as he was going on the same day. I arrived in Río with fear. Everyone had told me it is unsafe, that a lot of crime happens, tourist are robbed...To be honest, I haven´t seen anything dangerous, haven´t risked much anyway...But I heard stories of people that had been armed robbed late at night and while they where alone. I´ve met people here and visited the city with them. Specially 7 spanish guys from Madrid that were travelling all together and are great fun, Jaime, another spanish guy that is also travelling arround South America, Martín, an argentinian guy that became our dealer. Even when we didn´t want to buy anything, he dealed "noo! Boludo! we just saw it for 3 reales up there!!" Also Ximena and Ana, two very nice colombian girls.

I booked a tour on my first day to see all the main attractions, the Corcovado, the Pao de Azucar, Santa Teresa, the famous stairs of Lapa..

The Corcovado is known worldwide for the 38-metre statue of Jesus, and is also a symbol of the Brazilian culture. The most beatiful thing I´ve seen here are the views of the city. I had seen it on pictures or documentals, but it is far more amazing when you see it yourself!

The name "Pao de Azucar" that means "Sugar Loaf" was coined by the Portuguese during the heyday of sugar cane trade in Brazil. Blocks of sugar were placed in conical molds made of clay to be transported on ships. The shape given by these molds was similar to the peak, hence the name.

I had also the chance to visit the favela of Rocinha with a tour, one of the biggest favelas in South America with about 65.000 inhabitants. Most of the favela is on a very steep hill, and almost all the houses are made from concrete and brick. There are various community organizations working in Rocinha, and non-profit educational institutions. It´s a favela in process of pacification. In November 2011, a security operation was executed where hundreds of police and military patrolled the streets of Rocinha to crackdown on rampant drug dealers and bring government control to the neighborhood. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ9Zk3pOLRE&feature=related) When I visited it, I saw police everywhere. On the tour, we rode a mototaxi to the top of the favela, and walked through the dirty roads of the neighbourhood

. I think that´s going to be a little like what I´m going to find in some parts of Asia...people there coexists with rubbish naturally. They are narrow streets, and literally, there are mountains of rubbish between houses, mixed with chickens, dogs, rats, children, food...disgusting! But I actually expected people to be mean and with bad intentions. On the contrary, they were very kind.

I´m surprised how much portuguese I´ve learnt on the last few weeks...I´ve learnt the key words to be able to comunicate in portuguese! I´ve bought a phrase book to learn faster, so I think I will be able to add it to my CV when I finish travelling Brazil!

"Parabens" if you read it all, and thank you for reading it! I´ll try to post more regularly...I know it was too long this time!